US Presidential First Lady. She was the wife of John Quincy Adams, who was the 6th US President. One of 8 children, her father was an American merchant and her mother an Englishwoman, and was raised in London, England and Nantes, France where her family had taken refuge during the American Revolution. While in Nantes, she received her education in a French convent school. In 1794 she met John Quincy Adams in London, where her father had been appointed US consul general and they were married at All Hallows Barking Parish in July 1797 and went to Berlin where her husband was the US Minister to Prussia. During their marriage she was often sickly, plagued by migraine headaches and frequent fainting spells, and had several miscarriages. In 1809 she left her two oldest sons, George Washington Adams and John Adams II, in Massachusetts to acquire their education and traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia with her youngest son, Charles Francis Adams, to join her husband, who was serving as the first US Minister. While there she gave birth to a daughter, Louisa Catherine Adams, in August 1811 but she died a year later. In 1814 she traveled to London where her husband was involved with the Treaty of Ghent peace negotiation between the US and England. In 1817 she moved with her family to Washington DC as her husband was appointed to the position of Secretary of State by President James Monroe. When her husband became the US President in 1825, the pleasures of moving into the White House were dimmed by the bitter politics of the election, paired with her deep depression and she soon became reclusive. While living in the White House during his four-year term, she was the author of many writings and poems concerning anti-slavery and pro-women views and translated a number of major books from French to English. Along with Dolly Madison, the wife of the 4th US President James Madison, she helped raise funds for the building of the Washington Monument. Later, the untimely deaths of her two oldest sons (George in 1829 from an apparent suicide and John in 1834 from alcoholism) added to her depression. After the death of her husband in 1848 at the US Capital Building, where he had served as a Massachusetts congressman for 17 years, she remained in Washington DC until her death from a heart attack at the age of 77. (bio by: William Bjornstad)